CONSTRUCTION WORKERS’ SKILL DEVELOPMENT: A STRATEGY FOR IMPROVING CAPACITY AND PRODUCTIVITY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Year 2018, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 66 - 80, 01.01.2018

M. Orando A.K. Isabirye

Abstract

This paper examines construction workers’ skills development as a strategy for
building capacity and improving work productivity in South Africa. Whilst there
are other factors that could influence workers’ skills development, this study
focused on human work skill behaviour factors in the construction industry. A
descriptive research methodology using emailed questionnaires to collect data was
used. Collected data were analysed using two statistical methods.The first one
used the mean values to establish data acceptance and the second, the relative
importance index, was used grade the data Twenty three factors, narrowed down
to six main behaviours were found to be significant in influencing construction
workers’ capacity to improve productivity. The six behaviours included
educational backgrounds, attitude towards own skills development, working
conditions, the organisation’s role in enhancing employee capacity and goal
setting. Based on the results of the study, it was recommended that construction
project organisations could incorporate the identified skill development factors in
their organisations in order to build their skill capacity to improve construction
productivity in South Africa. It also was recommended that, governments could
use identified factors in their national strategies and policies for construction
workers’ empowerment and productivity improvement to create wealth in the
national economy.

Keywords

Skill development factors, Construction workers, Capacity building, Productivity, South Africa